As impressive as the numbers are, they only begin to tell the story of Latino history in the United States. The same can be said of the sweeping and long-overdue documentary, "Latino Americans," airing on PBS over the next three Tuesdays.

With more than 50 million people, Latino Americans make up the largest minority group in the U.S. By the middle of this century, they will represent 29 percent of the overall population, while non-Hispanic whites will decrease from 67 to 47 percent.

The cultural impact of Latino Americans is extensive on every level, from music, to film, to politics. There is a Latina justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, a Latino senator from Florida who is seen as a strong possibility for a presidential run in 2016, and Latino twins in Texas who are, respectively, mayor of San Antonio and a member of Congress.

Puerto Rican-born Rita Moreno was slathered with darkening makeup for years in Hollywood to play American Indians in secondary film roles until she got the chance to play Anita in "West Side Story" and won an Oscar for the role. That was more than 50 years ago, but while Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Eva Longoria, Selena Gomez and Sofia Vergara are huge stars, Hollywood is still playing catch-up with casting film and TV shows that reflect the size of the Latino population.

Right Now: Viola Davis: "The Pay Disparity in Hollywood Involves More than Gender"InStyle

This Brutal Mexican Fistfight Festival Goes Back 500 YearsRuptly TV

If some viewers are surprised to learn that Latino American history stretches back more than 500 years - as one commentator says in the PBS film, Latinos "didn't arrive (in the U.S.) the day before yesterday" - it's for the simple reason that Latino history has been either taken for granted or ignored altogether.

That's the reason that "Latino Americans" probably bites off more than it can chew, but it's a good and important start to setting the record of history straight.

The PBS film, produced by Cuban-born Adriana Bosch, successfully communicates that there are both an overall story of Latino American history, and separate stories of Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican and Central American immigrant groups to be told. Those individual stories have much in common - language, religion - but their experiences and history are their own as well.

Welcomed, rejected

In California, for example, Mexicans went from being wealthy, influential landholders to second-class citizens after Anglo settlers voided their Mexican land grants. By the 20th century, Mexican immigrants were being deported to Mexico because they were viewed as competitors for the few jobs that were available in the Depression. Later, when cheap labor was needed, the borders opened up again.

But the need for cheap farm labor meant thousands of Mexican immigrants were subject to intolerable working conditions, pitifully low wages and no benefits at all, until Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta spearheaded the farmworkers unionization effort.

Throughout history, Latinos have been alternately welcomed and rejected in the U.S., often depending on the need for cheap labor. The roots of the critical issue of immigration in the 21st century go back hundreds of years.

In Texas, political leader Juan Seguin fought against Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution and escaped being killed at the Alamo only because, as a Spanish speaker, he was sent on a scouting mission before Santa Anna's forces attacked. As Anglo settlers arrived in ever greater numbers in Texas, Seguin said he felt like "a foreigner in my own land"- a sentiment no doubt echoed later by California Mexicans when Capt. John Fremont usurped their land and wealth.

Cuban revolutionary José Martí immigrated to New York at the end of the 19th century, in search of freedoms that were denied to him in his own country. Soon disillusioned by the U.S., he moved to Florida to launch an invasion of Cuba, foreshadowing the huge Cuban emigration from Castro-controlled Cuba in the 20th century and the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.

Cries out for sequel

The six parts of "Latino Americans" are arranged both in chronological order and according to areas of the country where specific groups resided. The filmmakers do a very good job keeping all the separate plates spinning for six hours, although, to be honest, the show virtually cries out for a sequel focusing more thoroughly on modern times.

Both the size and richness of the Latino American community make it an even more significant political, economic and cultural force than ever before.

While we wait for that sequel and other films to be made, considering the past can help us understand and celebrate the struggles and achievements of Latino Americans in all aspects of American culture.